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DIY: Do It Yourself Post here to share or improve your wrench turning skills! All BMW E46 DIY tips, tales, and projects discussed inside. Learn to work on your car and know the right BMW parts you will need!

25. I rented a ball joint press from autozone, with my "tool" and an impact wrench I was able to press the steel sleeve out.

26. Here are the two carriers free of the OEM bushings.

27. The left over stock parts.

28. I cleaned up the carriers and sanded the insides according to the powerflex instructions.

29. I again used the ball joint press and pressed in the power flex bushings. I took the purple inner section of the bushing out while pressing it in. It was a two step process to press the bushings in. The first time I could not use the spacer sleeve that comes with the press because there was not room.

30. With the bushing pressed in half way I added the sleeve so that the bushing could properly seat on both sides of the carrier.

32. Install the inner bushing part. I use white lithium grease to lubricate the two parts.

33. The bushings all ready to install.

34. Everything bolted back together. Carrier to frame rails takes 44 ft/lbs and the chassis brace to frame is two stage. First tighten to 43 lb/fts then tighten another 90 degrees and another 30 degrees. (per the Bentley manual).

Nice DIY, when you were getting the new bushing on, did you hammer it onto the control arm??

BTW, since it was such a PITA to take out the OEM bushings, doesn't that say something about their durability....After thoroughly reading this DIY, I think that the OEM bushing is already pretty damn overengeneered...

the OE bushings are good for regular driving. But being that they are rubber, and rubber doesnt hold up well under extreme conditions and tend to flex, harden, crack and break after prolonged use doesnt make them good after awhile. What your're seeing is the parts thats made to stick to the arms and carrier/bracket. whats in the middle or cut out is the rubber portion.

This is why you will notice a much tighter feel to your handling and steering response. The PU's properties are much better than rubber.

Nice DIY, when you were getting the new bushing on, did you hammer it onto the control arm??

BTW, since it was such a PITA to take out the OEM bushings, doesn't that say something about their durability....After thoroughly reading this DIY, I think that the OEM bushing is already pretty damn overengeneered...

The bushings went right on for the most part. I might have used a block of wood to bang it on a little but it wasn't very hard at all.

Yes it was a pain, no it says nothing about the OE quality. The inner rubber part of the bushing itself isn't hard to get out (see attachment with it missing). What is hard to get out is the steel sleeve. I actually pressed the rubber part out when I was trying to figure out what I was going to do. Then I beat on the steel part with a hammer and tried a couple other things before making my "tool"

Tim, you're the man. I wish you had this DIY like 6 months ago. I had bought OEM ones along with the control arms and replaced them, and still I have a shake in the steering wheel everytime there's a rapid application on the brake pedal...the dealership checked the bushings three times afterward, and they tell me everything looks fine..
Great write up, definitely needs to be added to the Tech section. Thank yu for your time and for sharing this awsome write up.

You know those are just OE replacements, right? If you are interested in replacing old OE junk with new OE junk that is the way to go, if you are interested in actually improving something then the power flex are the way to go.

If you got the bushings on special for $60 you could probably have the bushings pressed out and in by a shop for $40 or so and you are basically at the same price but with better parts.

I am going to attempt this myself this weekend. However, I do plan on bringing the carriers to a shop to have the old steel sleeves pressed out and the new bushings pressed in. One question, why did you have to remove the front wheels before taking the carriers off? Also, did you tighten the brace back on while the vehicle was still up in the air, or were they tightened down after the car was lowered on to it's own weight. The reason I ask is, I read somewhere that if you do not tighten up the bolts under the weight of the vehicle, some binding could occur after lowering the car. I am new to all of this, so pardon my stupidy. Thanks

After reading thru this excellent post I just went out and jacked up my 1999 328i w/sport suspension to check the control arm bushings for wear. I have about 53K miles on it since purchased new in '99. What I noticed was that when the front wheel is shaken back and forth there is about 1/4" of side-to-side play in the rubber bushing. What is normal? There is no external visual sign of wear of failure in the rubber.
For the last 10K miles I have noticed a kind of "bumpsteer" when going over rough roads that I didn't have before. I was attributing this to degrading tire wear from the Bridgestone Pole Position SO-3 tires. On smooth surfaces I do not notice any handling differences. The car takes a firm set and tracks nicely.
So, I'm wondering what is "normal" and how do you tell when the bushing need replacement. Or have I already answered my own question? The pixs and descriptions here give me a lot of confidence that if they ought to be replaced then the aftermarket polyurethane bushing are the only way to go.

Finally got up enough nerve to attempt to change out my front control arm bushings today, so far, so good, Tim's write up has been very helpfull so far. I only had time today to remove the drivers side carrier and clean up the control arm. I managed to get the rest of the bushing off of the control arm with a 2 jaw puller I borrowed from a friend (see pic). This worked extremely well. I am going to try and make the tool Tim described in his write up to remove the metal sleeve from the carrier. Do I need a bech grinder to grind down the pipe cap or is there another way (don't have a bench grinder). Also, the new bushings have like a lip on both sides, how did you press the new bushing in with the lip, did it just squeeze through? How much does autozone charge to rent a ball joint press for a day? Thanks in advance...

I used an angle grinder but a bench grinder, dremel tool or something else might work also.

The lip on the new bushings just gets pushed through. A ball joint press requires a $105 deposit but is fully refundable when you return the press, so it actually doesn't cost you anything to rent it.

Good luck,
Tim

Yep, rented the ball joint press yesterday from autozone, also bought a torque wrench while I was there. I also broke down and bought a bench grinder yesterday from Lowes. I bought a 2" cap plug in plumbing, and this fit perfect to press out the driver side metal sleeve. But the pass. side one the plug just keeps "slipping" inside the the sleeve and it won't push it out. I am stuck at this point. I started grinding down a 2" cap yesterday, what a pain, takes forever, I hope this works because I don't know what else I can try, maybe a large socket? Everything was going great up until this point. I sprayed the sleeve with a penetrator/magnetic lubricant last night I hope this frees it up a little bit. Any other ideas? If I can not get it out, does anyone know the part number for the carrier? Thinking I might just have to buy a new carrier for the pass. side. Thanks in advance......